Bella's Change
by shaemichelle
Summary: Bella goes missing, a day before her wedding. When Jacob and the pack find her, things don't look good. The best thing to do might be quite the change...


**Bella: A Prologue **

I backed up against the rocks, knowing it would be useless. I knew this was not a normal wolf, nor a member of Jacob's pack, not one who was guided by a kind Sam Uley.

The wolf, larger than Jacob's wolf-form, was auburn, almost a clean red. Clouds moved, blocking the sun directly above me. A storm was on the way, readying itself to wash my scent away so Edward couldn't find my body. I was about to die, and judging by the teeth showing as it sounded another guttural snarl that had me trembling in physical terror, it would be painful.

Like the time I drowned, or the time James nearly killed me, my life didn't flash before my eyes. My mind was suspiciously calm, like I knew somehow that something would make it back to Edward and my parents. Renee was no doubt waiting with Charlie now, in La Push, where I was close to when this wolf got a hold of me.

My bad leg, the one he had dragged me here with, gave out under my weight, leaving me completely defenceless on the cold, damp ground. The wolf began to stalk forward, ignoring my sobs as I began to panic. Why?

I knew as soon as he grabbed my leg he never intended me to live, why should I be panicking now?

He leaped at me, and I felt his teeth slash at my arm. Pain ripped at my consciousness, and, not wanting to die with my own bloodied limbs in my mind, I shut my eyes, and thought of Edward.

**Edward: The Story **

I swear, when they found her, I would kill Jacob for letting this happen. He _knew_ Bella was high-maintenance, how could he let her out of his sight for a second?

But now Jacob, the dim-witted dog who had not kept his unintelligent eye on my fiancée, was out with his pack looking for her, and Jasper, Emmett, Carlisle and I wait here, in a back room of the small hospital of La Push, for Bella to be brought back here to me.

Charlie is under the impression that I am out of town with Emmett and Jasper for a bachelor party, and, therefore, I cannot be seen with the searchers, not for the amount of time it would take me to drive back from Seattle as a traditional human. In reality, I was going to go hunt, but as soon as Alice got the call from Jacob that Bella never arrived, my plans were cancelled.

Where was she? What had gone wrong? Why hadn't they found her yet?

Jasper sensed my panic, and tried to calm me, through words and his influence. _Relax, Edward. Bella will be fine, she always is, _his mind whispered. I glared at him as I passed while pacing. I fought the urge to tell him that the only reason she was always safe was I was always there.

"What if it was Alice missing? Would you be waiting around to return from a fake party?" I snapped. Carlisle knew I was answering Jasper's thoughts and merely gestured for me to keep it down. Emmett ignored me completely.

_Alice wouldn't get lost like this; she would be able to see where we would find her…_ I tuned Jasper out, still hearing him, but not as the full voice he'd been before, as he reminded me of Alice's sight. I hated that she couldn't see wolves before, because it meant I didn't know if Bella was safe with Jacob or not. Bella had insisted there was no danger, and I had let her go.

Now all I knew was werewolves were involved, and that it wasn't Jacob's pack hurting her. After all, their minds were so interconnected I could read their memories, and none of them had known or fathomed this could happen. Even before the wolves got involved in the hunt, I knew that.

_Hey, Sam, there's blood over here! _

Seth Clearwater's thoughts pulled me into the pack's mind—minds. I listened sharply, focusing on their equilibrium.

_That's the trail you need to follow. Embry, meet up with Seth, the rest of us will follow_, Sam ordered swiftly, beginning to circle around to meet up with Seth and Embry.

_There's paw prints here, bigger than ours,_ Embry thought.

_That's Bella's blood! I can recognize her scent,_ Jacob said. I had expected him to be as panicked as I was, but his emotions matched the rest of the pack's. I remembered that he imprinted on a girl who moved to La Push from a Canadian reserve up north, where Jacob had been running when he… freaked out, for lack of a more appropriate phrase, upon receiving the invitation to our wedding.

"Edward?" Emmett asked concernedly, in response to my halt in movement, and the sudden intense concentration I am sure crossed my face.

"Jacob found a trail of her blood," I murmured, sitting against the wall and shutting my eyes to listen.

Jacob… He was on the trail, ahead of the rest of pack now, sprinting full-out. I focused on his angle of seeing, waiting to see Bella—or a body. He cared for Bella nearly as much I did, despite it not being the same way anymore. I felt his anguish and anxiety alongside my own.

Jacob saw a large wolf, one nearly a bright red, (reminding me foolishly of Victoria's hair) slightly taller, but more wiry, than him tearing at a bloody lump. He tackled the wolf, holding it down as Sam burst into the small clearing at the base of a rock wall. The rest of the pack came in and began to fight the giant ruby wolf.

_Jacob, Quill, get Bella out of here!_ Sam shouted over the roars. The red wolf sunk his teeth into him viciously, and I heard its possessed, hungry thoughts:_ To rip, to tear the blood and flesh… I want to eat this one, tastes better than the Alpha's mate…_What Alpha's mate? Emily was—

Jacob broke off, and phased to human, scooping Bella's body into his arms. Quill knelt in a wolfish way; Jacob seemed to understand his intentions easily. He clambered onto the wolf's shoulders, holding Bella's ravaged form close as they took off. Oh, no, Bella…

Jasper must've been keeping my panic at bay. I could think cohesively, unlike two years ago, when I had sobbed over Bella's broken form. Maybe the fact I couldn't panic now would help us save her, somehow…

I opened my eyes, and heard Carlisle worrying about me. _…know what this would do to him, if she dies now. How could he survive this, last time he thought she was dead he went to provoke Aro, Caius, and Marcus. What would he do now; Alice and his siblings wouldn't let him run off again, not to mention Esme and me…_

"Jacob has Bella, they're on their way back," I said, raising myself off the floor. I glanced at my watch, it was five o'clock. Bella went missing at noon; I would be back from Seattle any minute. Emmett thought so, too.

"Let's go," he said, opening the back door leading to the ambulance dock.

"Time to make our entrance?" Jasper asked. I nodded, but couldn't help but glance at Carlisle. _I will let you know before anyone else what she's like. If you see from Jacob or I that it's taken a turn for the worse, come into the OR I have prepared._

I nodded again, and we swept out. The panic was still dully there, but was beginning to surface. I entered the woods ahead of my brothers, sprinting to the small, hidden cranny of trees invisible from the road where we hid our car. Emmett climbed in the driver's side, Jasper in the back, I in the passenger side. As we entered the small parking lot of La Push General, I saw Jacob and Quill, in bloodstained, proper human attire carrying a lump wrapped in blankets. A sick feeling spread through me when I saw in Jacob's mind what she looked like. I leapt from the car before Emmett came to a full stop, and saw Charlie pacing, like I had moments before, in the waiting room.

I entered with Jasper a beat behind me, hoping my expression carried an appropriate sentiment of a fiancé of "eighteen".

"They haven't found her yet, kiddo," Charlie said to me, sitting down beside Renee, who was nervously tearing up a diabetes brochure, while a man, Phil, I reckoned, rubbed her back soothingly. I realized Carlisle had changing on his list of how to save Bella. That wasn't good.

I looked around at Alice and Rosalie, Angela Weber and her boyfriend, Ben Cheney, and then asked Charlie, for his benefit, where my father was. _I can't see what happens,_ Alice thought to me. _Jacob is still with her, I can smell it._

Jasper sat near Angela, and Emmett entered, the open door letting a current of air flow in. Charlie shrugged helplessly and gestured to the doors the read NO ADMITTANCE.

I went through them, concentrating on the mental picture Carlisle formed inside my head.

Her heart was still beating, somehow, though she hadn't taken a breath yet. _We can't save her, Edward,_ my father thought, a tone of sadness tingeing his words, as I rounded corner after corner. _We _could_ change her. She's too far gone for a human recovery._ I opened the door of the recovery room, the farthest from the ER's waiting room, and watched as the sight I'd seen in my head in the minds of the pack, in Jacob's head, in my father's, and my own, became real.

I went to Carlisle, not breathing, ignoring Jacob who was in the corner. I went to Bella, purposely tuning out my father's thoughts. I could not—would not—change her unless I was positive there was no other option. But I was quickly beginning to dismiss that small hope as I saw, with my own eyes, her body.

Her legs were clearly broken, looking like raw hamburger where the rogue wolf had chewed. Her arms weren't much better, and a few of her fingers were missing completely. Her torso had a gaping hole in it, tearing through her chest to reveal her punctured lungs, and her still-beating heart.

Even just looking at her like this, I could feel the place where my heart should be beating turn cold and sharp, like when James tried to kill her, or when I thought, she'd tried to kill her self.

I saved her face for last. There were three, deep slashes across her cheek, leaving blood on her otherwise untouched, pale face, her beautiful eyes shut. She was my Bella, and Carlisle said she needed to be bitten to live. Not live, but in order to continue to exist in this world of mine. Now that I saw with my own eyes, I agreed. I hated agreeing with Carlisle on some occasions.

"You know what needs to be done, son," Carlisle said. "We've been through this, when this was what she wanted."

"What are you doing?" demanded Jacob, coming closer to the gurney from his corner, where he'd been trying to ignore our smell, as we'd been ignoring his. "What do you mean?"

"She needs to be bitten. It's the only way we can save her," explained Carlisle with frightful patience.

"You can't!" Jacob shouted. "Bella has to say goodbye to her parents, to her friends, to me; you can't—"

"Every second we spend talking about this is a second that causes the chance of her waking up after the change to drop."

"What do you mean?" Jacob asked, taking Bella's hand like a friend would. _They're turning my Bella into a leech, a filthy bloodsucker like Cullen. _I let Jacob listen to Carlisle's words as I read my father's thoughts, which was faster and easier.

_There's so much brain damage from the lack of oxygen and the sheer loss of blood, if the venom stops her heart before it repairs her brain she may be immortal, but comatose. The pain from the venom cannot help the matter of her brain either. Even with morphine…_

Jacob was accepting the only chance to save Bella was to turn her into his natural enemy. I tried to tune out his thoughts. He was angry, hurt, and unwilling. He wanted no part in this. He retreated from his best friend and took off outside, then into the woods, where I knew Quill and the rest of the pack waited, all in human form.

Carlisle shut the door leading to the hallway Jacob left through. _Take Bella out of here, they would hear her screams. Take her to a place far out in the woods, and change her. I will follow when we can fabricate enough remains to show her death to her parents and friends._

"She didn't want it to go like this," I whispered brokenly as I rewrapped bloody blankets around my fiancée. "She wanted to say a proper goodbye."

"That's impossible now. I'll tell the public that you joined the search party."

I took Bella up in my arms and ran, faster than her truck, faster than a cheetah, to our meadow. She should wake up there; it would add a little peace to this horrible situation.

I knew what had to be done, Carlisle's memory had taught me where to bite, and what to expect. But the possibility that she might not wake, even if I bit her, was terrifying.

I lay her in the grass, and listened to the slow pump, pump of her heart. I went over what Carlisle had said to do in my head; bite the jugular vein, take four swallows, and try to stop the bleeding.

It leaned it and bit her neck, in the soft skin beneath her ear. I felt the flow of blood, warm and delicious, flowed into my mouth.

The monster in me demanded I kill this weak being, savour the taste of the sweet, luscious, hot, red liquid flowing steadily into my mouth. How could I stop? Why would I want to? The taste was so impeccable, why had I been denying this sensation in effort to protect a pitiful human?

Bella groaned, jerking me back to the present, reminding me why I hadn't decided to kill her when we first met. Because she was Bella, and a person like me. She began to move slowly, whimpering as her unconsciousness wavered, I heard her heart begin to pump faster, and I prayed she would wake when it was over. I wanted her to wake when it was_ over,_ when the pain had subsided from her completely, leaving her strong and whole once again.

Bella began to writhe slowly, the hand in my lap knotting in my shirt. I watched her thrash in agony, on the edges of unconsciousness. Her eyes were moving under her lids, and I knew without her mind-voice that she was feeling the fire I knew was burning through her veins. She began to breathe though, and I tore my eyes from her face to her lungs.

They were regrowing, becoming whole before my eyes, as were the bites along her body. As she began to breathe, her heart positively racing now, she began to wake. I watched as, over the course of an hour, her chest mended; the flesh and organs knitting together, her breasts smooth and white once more.

That's when my Bella woke, positively yowling in pain. Her eyes flew open as she screamed, when she saw me, a look of relief crossed her now-healed face.

Even as I tried to tell her what was going on, even as my panic surfaced and I knew, if I could cry, I would be sobbing real tears, even then, I wished I could read her mind, know why she was relieved I bit her, relieved to see me, the one who caused her this pain.

"Edward," she cried softly, pressing her face against my leg. I pulled her body next to me, thinking that perhaps the cold of my body could help numb her, and lay down, hoping Alice would see us here, and send Carlisle with morphine. I hoped the morphine would knock Bella back out, spare her some pain.

I stretched my mind for Carlisle and his morphine as I whispered to Bella how brave she was, and how much I loved her. I'm not convinced she took notice of me beyond moaning my name repeatedly as she twitched.

I thought with dread of the next three days.

The worst part was that it was my fault. Firstly, with Victoria gone, I had assumed Bella was safe. But then, that wolf, whose intentions I was beginning to understand, had nearly killed her. And the way to keep her with me was to change her.

The way to save her was the one thing I never wanted to do to her. Especially like this, as a last resort. I had built up in my head a picture of her and I getting married, going on our honeymoon in a desert or jungle or even some deserted tropical island, where we would try before we changed her.

I caused her this pain, without even keeping the last promise I'd made her. The only thing she'd demanded of me, and I'd not fulfilled it. It would take me a hundred years to make this up to her, if I did then.

Carlisle appeared halfway through the second day. _We fabricated a bear-mauled body, _he thought. _There's no plan for an autopsy. _

"Do you have the morphine? I don't want Bella to take much more of this," I whispered, stroking her hair gently, watching the numerous scars from copious falls on her body fade into a deathly pale.

_I have it here, but you must remember it might not help,_ he told me as he prepared the syringe. He injected the morphine into the crook of her arm, and Bella screamed a moment later. She continued to scream for a moment, until she stopped, and sagged against me, tears running down her face.

"It makes it worse, the pain's worse, Edward…," she sobbed. She pulled her arm away from Carlisle, and her hand knotted in my shirt once again.

I could hear her heart through all this. I could hear it as it slowed, almost stopped, then it would speed up, racing. This time, I was sure her heart was going to stop.

Pump… Pump… Pump… … Pump.

With the final pulse of her heart, I felt her eyes flick open, almost hesitantly.

I sat up as she did, and she turned to look at me, having swept the clearing with her new eyesight. I almost reeled back in shock. I actually began to, before the hurt on her face stopped me.

"It's the red eyes, isn't it?" she whispered, looking down.

"No, actually. Bella, your eyes…" I paused, checking to make sure I wasn't mistaken.

"Your eyes are brown as mine."

A/N: WOO! Finally, eh? Anyhow… Yeah… OK, so Bella's eyes are brown because she was "born" a "vegetarian" vampire. She won't ever be tempted by human blood, and she'll have sweet powers. Bella has an amazing ability to believe in the supernatural, right? She is unaffected by most vamp's gifts, right? Yes, so she, I think, can make walls, physic walls. Y'know, kinda like Violet from the Incredibles. But with less sucking.

P.S.: thought you should know what the deal was with the wolf. When Jacob was running around in Canada, he imprinted, right? He imprinted on another pack's territory, and they took him as a threat. They followed him home, and somehow found out about how Jake and Bella had appeared to be a couple. So, to show him what the mistake was, he tried to kill Bella, the supposed "mate" of the wolf who was supposed to be Alpha.

P.P.S.: I got a whole bunch of reviews saying "OMG, what happens next? Update soon!" and I just want y'all to know, this is a one-shot. Chapter Uno is Chapter Finito here.


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